Page 48 of I'd Never Date my Best Friend's Brother

I feel my face start to heat, and I wave a hand across my face. “Is it warm in here?”

Laughter fills the room, and my mom gets up to give me a kiss on the cheek and then helps me with my coat.

“Let’s all bask in Jessica’s beauty a bit before we grill Evie, shall we?”

“Mom!” I scold without any bitterness in my tone, grateful for the time to settle in.

Since rushing out of Espresso Yourself, I’ve been on a high. I need a few minutes to let the adrenaline work its way through my body and process everything that’s happened in the last twelve hours.

I look up at Jess and see her staring at me through the mirror. The smirk on her face says she is not letting me leave today without getting all the details. I grin in response.

“Oh, thank goodness,” she says. “There’s the Evie we all know and love. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could handle the grumpy version.”

“Hey,” I yell, while everyone else laughs.

“Oh, Jessica.” Lenny stares at her daughter with glassy eyes. “Sean is not going to be able to take his eyes off of you. You look magnificent.”

Jess wipes the corner of her eye and smiles at her mom. “I don’t recognize who this person in the mirror is,” she whispers.

We all sit in silence as we watch Madelyn look over her work to see if anything needs to be adjusted, but the work she’s done is beyond reproach.

She finally stops and looks over Jessica’s shoulder. “Now for the piece de resistance.” She walks over to the dress rack and pulls out the veil, and we all let out a collective gasp.

She walks over to Jess and places this delicate piece of lace gently on the top of her head. The veil falls to her waist in both the front and back. The fabric has the same intricate berry design as the dress.

Tears run down my face at the sight of my best friend. I can see tears running down Jessica’s face too.

“Guess we’ll have to make sure the makeup is waterproof,” Lenny jokes as she dabs at her eyes.

“On all of us,” my mom throws in, and we all chuckle.

She’s not wrong. There isn’t a dry eye in the house, except for Madelyn.

An image of me in a wedding dress, holding my dad’s arm as I walk down the aisle toward Jamie, fills my mind. My lips lift at the corner, and my heart jumps around my chest like a bird trying to escape its cage.

“Everything looks perfect.” Madelyn’s voice breaks through my haze of thoughts, and I hear her unzip Jessica’s gown. “Let’s get you out of this dress.”

I look in the mirror and see the wide smiles on everyone’s faces as they all look at the bride. This moment is absolutely perfect, and there is a part of me that doesn’t want to take the focus off of her and put it on me.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook, Evie,” Jessica yells over her shoulder. “When I come out, you are giving us every single little detail!”

“Every single little one?” I ask with a raised eyebrow, teasing her.

I notice her face scrunch as she remembers that those details would involve her brother. “Okay. Maybe not every single one.”

Everyone laughs, and Penny leans in to whisper, “You can give me every single little detail. He’s not my brother.”

“Penny!” I throw my head back and laugh as she winks at me.

Lenny and my mom are talking amongst each other about the tree-trimming party that Jessica and Sean are having while we wait for Jessica to come out of the dressing room.

Normally, all of our trees are up and decorated right after Thanksgiving, but with the wedding and all the parties Sean and Jess have been having, neither of theirs has been decorated yet.

not to get a tree, since after the wedding he’ll be at Jessica’s house and they’ll wake up Christmas morning as Mr. & Mrs.

I raise my hand to my heart as an internal ‘aww’ fills me. When Jess and Sean first told me they were getting married Christmas Eve, I thought they were crazy, but now I totally see the appeal of it.

Every year, this holiday will be doubly special for my Christmas-loving brother. It honestly couldn’t be more perfect.

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